DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

(a) ence, which were nobly at variance with those of the upper classes. But ignorant to such a degree that he never mastered the difficulties of spelling or of grammar; with an unbounded confidence in his own judgment, which was often at fault; he retained throughout his life an extravagant estimate of the Royal prerogative. Bent on restoring the regal power to a position it had long lost, he endeavoured to use sources of in- fluence which only nominally belonged to the Crown, and were exercised by a responsible Ministry, for the promotion of his own authority. In his own private circle he enforced an almost puritanical severity, but selected for the highest offices men whose incapacity, or laxity of principle, made them subservient tools in his hands, and while practising in his court the strictest parsimony, lavished enormous sums in the pursuance of his political designs. Although he succeeded to a well-stocked treasury, his debts accumulated during his reign to nearly three and a half millions sterling —money chiefly expended on political corruption and bribery. The political machinery of the country, of which the House of Commons was the central feature, was well suited to the disposition of the young Sovereign. Since the days of Charles I, since the Revolution, especially, which banished the Stuarts and called the